warming, ice breaker, winter trap

It looks like the cold spell is over, though it is taking a while for the ice to melt. It was breaking up on the Oxford Canal ealier, at least.

Some mornings last week, the house stayed cold, even though the central heating had been on for hours. Saturday morning was bad, despite the sun.

I think I got fed up with the cold because the days are lengthening now and I felt the year should be opening up. Instead the cold just made me feel trapped by winter.

bill heine, goridebus, papers, andrew, nelle davy, raúl, benedict, david

An interesting and enjoyable start to the day, appearing on the Bill Heine programme on BBC Oxford.

I and another guest Danny Douglas were on during the first hour of the show, discussing news stories we picked out in the Sunday papers.

I'd not met Bill before, although I've come across him from time to time during my years in Oxford. He's the guy with the shark embedded in the roof of his terraced house in Headington.

I first saw Bill when I was queuing to see Duncan Campbell's banned Zircon spy satellite film at the Not the Moulin Rouge cinema, which Bill owned. I'd cycled up Headington Hill from Keble on a cold night in 1987, eager to see what all the fuss was about and to be part of the controversy. Before we were let in, Bill sauntered up and posed for the cameras.

More recently I saw Bill at the Kennington Literary Festival last October, where he was reading from his book, Hunting the Shark. I was at the event reading from Invisible--though not in the main hall, where Bill was.

The other guest on today's programme, Danny, has a community transport company called Go Ride, which is running a new evening and Sunday bus service between Watlington and Oxford and is applying for Big Society funding (see www.goridebus.co.uk).

During the programme we talked about a number of issues, including:

• The tragic death of Whitney Houston
• The state of publishing in the era of the e-book
• Health Secretary Andrew Lansley's plan to coax brewers into lowering the strength of beers in an attempt to reduce binge drinking--part of the government's sensible drinking campaign
• The rise of internet dating, which now accounts for one-in-five UK relationships (as the Sunday Times piece put it: "Once derided as the resort of the romantically inept, online dating has lost its stigma..."
• Nelle Davy's debut novel, The Legacy of Eden, written while working as a PA at literary agent PFD, which is set on a farm in Iowa and is a reimagining of Robert Graves' I Claudius
• Raúl Castro's reforms in Cuba, including oil exploration, mass tourism, private enterprise and organised religion (Pope Benedict XVI visits the island next month)
• David Miliband's six-point plan to reduce the number of long-term unemployed young people.

If you'd like to listen to the programme, it's on the iPlayer till next Sunday.

snowy start in bampton

Overnight snow doesn't seem to have been too heavy. Temperature has risen too--though it is set to plummet again tonight.

RH Buses posted a message on their website at midnight saying their services would run--though delays were possible--and sure enough the 18 to Oxford turned up, only fifteen minutes late. The main roads are clear but some snow remains on the lanes.

It's been a busy, tiring week but the snow is pretty and cheering. Looking forward to a lie-in tomorrow.

snow, saunter, wander, walk, catching up

The snow came as forecast yesterday afternoon. Today it looked pretty before near enough melting away by evening. The sky was overcast and the landscape seemed smoky for most of the day. The sun burst through briefly at about three.

Tufty loved the snow, including a saunter along the freshly whitened pavements to the Horse Shoe last night and a wander round the village at about midnight. We all had a great walk this morning.

The hazel catkins in the Millennium Wood, shown above, emerged during the warm spell in mid January. Some appear to have been burnt by the cold but most look alright. Meanwhile the recent frosts have helped to break down the ground on the allotment. Only some chard and beetroot remain to be harvested--though the spuds, onions and challottes in store are holding up.

Felt exhausted yesterday afternoon and at times today. I think the reality of the last couple of weeks is catching up with me.

another week, ice

Another week.

Actually, it has been a better one than the last two. How it could fail to be?

Work has helped--the tasks and routines--although thoughts and feelings have caught up with me, often when least expected.

The support of family, friends and colleagues has been amazing.

Meanwhile, the frog pond froze over at the beginning of the week and the ice has been getting thicker each day. This morning was SO cold! Lots of trips to the top of the garden with the Zanzibar six-cup coffee maker to melt holes in the ice to help the frogs get some air. They seem pretty torpid but appear to be doing well.

The outlook is rising temperatures--though with these will come the snow...

Saw the ducks, above, on the frozen-over Oxford canal on Thursday when walking to work. The other pic shows ice on the inside of our bedroom window. (The bedroom isn't heated in the belief that this is healthy. Not sure that's quite true just at the mo.)

thursday the twenty-sixth of january, little ouseburn

Dad’s funeral took place on Thursday.

He wanted to be buried in the Meysey-Thompson plot behind the Thompson Mausoleum in Little Ouseburn, Yorkshire--near Harrogate.

Dad’s mum’s family had lived at Kirby Hall, Little Ouseburn, until 1919 and the mausoleum had been where members of the family had been buried up until 1910. I’m not quite sure why burials in the mausoleum stopped but from the First World War onwards the family members were buried in the plot. The earliest graves in the plot are those of Dad’s grandfather, Lord Knaresborough, his wife and their son, Claude.

Claude was killed in the First World War and as a result his father decided to sell the hall and estate. All rather Downton Abbey. The hall was subsequently demolished. Only the entrance gates, the stable block and two lodges remain.

Dad provided information about the family's history when money was being raised to restore the mausoleum. Dad loved genealogy.

At the service, the reading I chose and read was taken from the Song of Solomon, chapter two verses eight to thirteen. The vicar asked me why I chose this reading. I have to confess that I started out trying to find a reading by googling funeral texts. It was when I saw the first lines of this reading that I remembered it from studying English at Keble. From what I remember the text had been referred to by a writer in the medieval or Renaissance period that I had been studying. The words seemed wholly appropriate to a gentle, loving man who adored the countryside.

The service, led by Father Parkin, was a lovely warm, enriching one. I was grateful to Father Parkin for reading the tribute to Dad that I had written--I could not have read this myself--and was very moved by the reminiscences of Dad’s army friend Jo.

In the graveyard, the spring sun shone.

Here is the text from the Song of Solomon.

8 The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
9 My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice.
10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

hedging, part two

Very strong winds today. Made cycling tough--although I was pleased to have gone out there when I got back.

The light was beautiful. Really springlike.

Took these pics earlier in the week when I came across some more hedging--near Broadwell. The scene at the top--laid hedge, cuttings drawn into a pile and burnt--could have come straight from my childhood. Lovely to see hedges being laid in the traditional way in many different places round here.

The bottom photo is of an overgrown hedge near the one that has been laid. The pic shows what happens when a hedge is allowed to go wild. You end up with a lot of spindly poles and bushy thorns that eventually crowd each other out and lead to the death of the hedge. For a time this might be good for insects but in the end you'll get wind-throw--the poles being blown into the field or road--and the death of the hedge. The hedge will no longer be stock proof and in all probability will end up being grubbed up.

I think my dad would have loved seeing lots of hedges being laid in the traditional way.